Specifying Managed Arrays as Function Parameters in C++

A More Intuitive Way

We're all professionals here and can learn to adapt to any new syntax that gets thrown our way. However, with just a couple of type definitions and a macro, we can make our code much more readable and intuitive. For example, instead of having to remember to use the __gc keyword with arrays of value type members, we can simply define a typedef for each desired type so that we can use the same syntax for either reference or value types. From there, we can specify a generic macro that takes the type name as a parameter so we don't have to remember the name of the typedef for each supported type. Here's how that would look:

In summary, the MCArray is much closer to native C++ syntax, resulting in fewer mistakes and greater readability.

About the Author

The founder of the Archer Consulting Group (ACG), Tom Archer has been the project lead on three award-winning applications and is a best-selling author of 10 programming books as well as countless magazine and online articles.